Almanac

Almanac

The Almanac page is a list of the rotating quotations or descriptions of events in Crane”s life that appear on the first page of this site. As you can see, not all the days are covered, but eventually they will be. The material derives from Crane”s works and The Crane Log. You can also suggest an event or quotation for a particular day.

Eventually, we hope to have a Stephen Crane chronology and a biographical sketch at this site.

Jan
Jan[1] January – March 1894. Crane writes most of the poems in THE BLACK RIDERS.
Jan[2] 1897. The COMMODORE sinks off the coast of Daytona Beach in Florida. Crane and three others escape in a lifeboat, an experience that he describes in “Stephen Crane”s Own Story” and “The Open Boat.”
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Jan[6] 1891. Crane enrolls in the College of Liberal Arts at Syracuse University.
Jan[7] San Antonio, January 6, 1896. The wind blows because it is the wind, the rain beats because it is the rain, the relic hunters hunt because they are relic hunters. . . . It is something of a habit among the newspaper men and others who write here to say: “Well, there”s a good market for Alamo stuff, now.” Or perhaps they say: “Too bad! Alamo stuff isn”t going very strong now.” Literary aspirants of the locality as soon as they finish writing about Her Eyes, begin on the Alamo. Statistics show that 69,710 writers of the state of Texas have begun at the Alamo. –“Stephen Crane in Texas”
Jan[8] 1897. [January 6]. He dashed into the water and grabbed the cook. Then he went after the captain, but the captain sent him to me, and then it was that we saw Billy Higgins lying with his forehead on sand that was clear of the water, and he was dead. –“Stephen Crane”s Own Story”
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Jan[19] 1893. Crane applies for a copyright for A GIRL OF THE STREETS, / A STORY OF NEW YORK. Crane pays to have this novel(MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS) privately published under the name Johnston Smith in late February or early March.
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Jan[26] 1896. William Dean Howells congratulates Crane on the success of THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE in England, adding that he will “remain true to my first love, “Maggie.” That is better than all the Black Riders and Red Badges.
Jan[27]
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Jan[29] 1896. In late January, Crane writes to John Northern Hilliard, “When I was the mark for every humorist in the country I went ahead, and now, when I am the mark for only 50 per cent of the humorists of the country, I go ahead, for I understand that a man is born into the world with his own pair of eyes and he is not at all responsible for his quality of personal honesty. To keep close to my honesty is my supreme ambition.
Jan[30] 1897. Crane spends mid-January to early February in New York, where he finishes writing “The Open Boat.”
Jan[31] There was a man with tongue of wood / Who essayed to sing / And in truth it was lamentable / But there was one who heard / The clip-clapper of this tongue of wood and knew what the man /Wished to sing / And with that the singer was content. —War is Kind

Feb
Feb[1] 1895. Crane arrives in Nebraska to cover the destitution and starvation wrought by the previous summer”s drought and the extremely cold winter of 1894-95. In the evening, he meets Willa Cather, who in December had copy edited THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE for the STATE JOURNAL.
Feb[2] 1896. In a letter to editor Ripley Hitchcock, Crane notes, “I see also that they are beginning to charge me with having played base ball. I am rather more proud of my base ball ability than of some other things.”
Feb[3] If I should cast off this tattered coat, And go free into the mighty sky;If I should find nothing there But a vast blue, Echoless, ignorant–What then?–The Black Riders
Feb[4] 1896. February 4-6. Crane writes to editor Ripley Hitchcock to report that he is continuing to revise Maggie according to Hitchcock”s advice and has “dispensed with a goodly number of damns.”
Feb[5] We picture the world as thick with conquering and elate humanity, but here, with the bugles of the tempest pealing, it was hard to imagine a peopled earth. One viewed the existence of man then as a marvel, and conceded a glamour of wonder to these lice which were caused to cling to a whirling, fire-smote, ice-locked, disease-stricken, space-lost bulb. The conceit of man was explained by this storm to be the very engine of life. One was a coxcomb not to die in it. –“The Blue Hotel”
Feb[6] If there is a witness to my little life, / To my tiny throes and struggles, / He sees a fool; / And it is not fine for gods to menace fools. —The Black Riders
Feb[7] 1895. February 6-8. In Kearny, Nebraska Crane watches a three-day blizzard with 60 mph winds from his unheated hotel room, an experience that he incorporates into “The Blue Hotel.”
Feb[8] 1895. Early February. Appleton and Company agree to publish THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE.
Feb[9] 1898. February. “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” appears in MCCLURE”S MAGAZINE in the U.s. and in CHAPMAN”S MAGAZINE in England.
Feb[10] 1900. In an article on “the New Art of Description in Fiction,” the LITERARY DIGEST identifies Crane as one of the “writers of the new school” who “in their effort to be vivid and striking, have allowed themselves to be carried away into extremes”(424-35).
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Feb[13] 1895. In the STATE JOURNAL offices in Lincoln, Nebraska, Crane and Willa Cather talk about literature and life. According to Cather, Crane said that “After he got a notion for a story, months passed before he could get any sort of personal contact with it, or feel any potency to handle it. “The detail of a thing has to filter through my blood, and then it comes out like a native product, but it takes forever,” he remarked.
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Feb[18] Walking in the sky / A man in strange black garb / Encountered a radiant form. / Then his steps were eager; / Bowed he devoutly. / “My lord,” said he./ But the spirit knew him not. –The Black Riders
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Feb[20] Oglethorpe contended that the men who made the most money from books were the best authors. Hollanden contended that they were the worst. Oglethorpe said that such a question should be left to the people. Hollanden said that the people habitually made wrong decisions on questions that were left to them. “That is the most odiously aristocratic belief,” said Oglethorpe. “No,” said Hollanden. “I like the people. But, considered generally, they are a collection of ingenious blockheads.” “But they read your books,” said Oglethorpe, grinning. “That is through a mistake,” replied Hollanden. –THE THIRD VIOLET
Feb[21] 1897. “A Man and Some Others” appears in THE CENTURY, with a full-paged illustration by Frederic Remington (243).
Feb[22] There was a ceaseless rumble in the air as the heavy raindrops battered upon the laurel-thickets and the matted moss and haggard rocks beneath. Four water-soaked men made their difficult ways through the drenched forest. The little man stopped and shook an angry finger at where night was stealthily following them. “Cursed be fate and her children and her children”s children! We are everlastingly lost!” he cried. The panting procession halted under some dripping, drooping hemlocks and swore in wrathful astonishment.” –“The Black Dog”
Feb[23] In the NEW YORK WORLD, Jeannette Gilder disparagingly reviews Crane”s career. MAGGIE and Crane”s journalism illustrate that “He did not spend much time at school, which probably accounts for his grammatical lapses and for many faults of style.” THE BLACK RIDERS “had better be forgotten,” but THE RED BADGE shows Crane”s promise as a prose writer: “If he turns his back upon the Muse and gives himself time to write prose he will make a mark that it will be hard to erase” (171).
Feb[24] It had begun to seem to them that events were trying to prove that they were impotent. These little battles had evidently endeavored to demonstrate that the men could not fight well. When on the verge of submission to these opinions, the small duel had showed them that the proportions were not impossible, and by it they had revenged themselves upon their misgivings and upon the foe.” –THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, chapter XX.
Feb[25] In a lonely place, I enountered a sage Who sat, all still, Regarding a newspaper. He accosted me: “Sir, what is this?”Then I saw that I was greater,Aye, greater than this sage. I answered him at once, “Old, old man, it is the wisdom of the age.”The sage looked upon me with admiration.–THE BLACK RIDERS
Feb[26] 1898. Crane inscribes a copy of THE LITTLE REGIMENT to [Joseph] Conrad (291).
Feb[27] A man feared that he might find an assassin;Another that he might find a victim.One was more wise than the other.–THE BLACK RIDERS
Feb[28] None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them. These waveswere of the hue of slate, save for the tops, which were of foraming white, and all of the men knew the colors of the sea.–“The Open Boat”
Feb[29]

Mar
Mar[1] 1896. Crane writes a letter to Nellie Crouse that he does not complete, complaining about the strain of being lionized in New York:”You know what I mean. That disgraceful Red Badge is doing so very well that my importance has widened and everybody sits down and calmly waits to see me be a chump” (172).
Mar[2] 1896. Walter Hines Page, associate editor of the ATLANTIC MONTHLY, asks Crane for a contribution (174).
Mar[3] Johnnie was a typical American. In Europe a typical American is a man with a hard eye, chin-whiskers and a habit of speaking through his nose. Johnnie was a young man of great energy, ready accomplish a colossal thing for the basic reason that he was ignorant of its magnitude.–“This Majestic Lie,” one of Crane”s Cuba stories.
Mar[4] In a room a woman sat at a table eating like a fat monk in a picture.–MAGGIE, A GIRL OF THE STREETS
Mar[5] 1898. “Death and the Child” appears in two parts in BLACK AND WHITE (London) on 5 and 12 March [ . . .] and in HARPER”S WEEKLY in New York on 19 and 26 March (292).
Mar[6] He was being looked at by a dead man who was seated with his back against a columnlike tree. –THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE
Mar[7] It perhaps might be said–if any one dared–that the most worthless literature of the world has been that which has been written by the men of one nation concerning the men of another.–“The Mexican Lower Classes”
Mar[8] 1895. Crane advises Ripley Hitchcock that he returned the manuscript of THE RED BADGE from New Orleans, adding: “I made a great number of small corrections. As to the name I am unable to see what to do with it unless the word “Red” is cut out perhaps. That would shorten it.” (129)
Mar[9] The bride was not pretty, nor was she very young. She wore a dress of blue cashmere, with small reservations of velvet here and there and with steel buttons abounding. She continually twisted her head to regard her puff sleeves, very stiff, straight, and high. They embarrassed her. It was quite apparent that she had cooked, and that she expected to cook, dutifully. –“The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky”
Mar[10] March 10-15, 1894. Crane brings his poems to Hamlin Garland, who writes a letter recommending them to William Dean Howells.
Mar[11] 1900. In an article in the NEW YORK JOURNAL, “The Talk of London,” Crane makes some observations on the effect of the Boer War on the imperialistic ventures of European powers other than England . . . ” (427).
Mar[12] 1895. Crane arrives in San Antonio and tours the city, leaving on March 17. (129-130)
Mar[13] 1893.MAGGIE is reviewed in THE PORT JERVIS UNION, the earliest known review of one of Crane”s works.
Mar[14]
Mar[15] 1898. Crane publishes his appreciative essay on Harold Frederic, author of THE DAMNATION OF THERON WARE, in THE CHAP-BOOK. He focuses on Frederic”s Civil War fiction, including IN THE SIXTIES, a reprint of THE COPPERHEAD and MARSENA.
Mar[16] There was a man and a woman Who sinned. Then did the man heap the punishment All upon the head of her, And went away gayly.–THE BLACK RIDERS
Mar[17] Suddenly there was an oath, the thud of wood on the ground, and a swift murmur of astonishment from the ranks. The two lieutenants glared at each other. The bucket lay on the ground empty. –“A Mystery of Heroism”
Mar[18] If this old ninny-woman, Fate, cannot do better than this, she should be deprived of the management of men”s fortunes. –“The Open Boat”
Mar[19] The successful man has thrust himself through the water of the years Reeking wet with mistakes, bloody mistakes Slimed with victories over the lesser A figure thankful on the shore of money.(264).
Mar[20] The youth was horrorstricken. He stared in agony and amazement. He forgot that he was engaged in combating the universe. He threw aside his mental pamphlets on the philosophy of the retreated and rules for the guidance of the damned. –THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, chapter XII.
Mar[21] There was a thin flash of red in the darkness. It was long and keen like a crimson rapier. A short, sharp report sounded, and then a shot whined softly in the air and blipped into the sea.–“Flanagan and His Short Filibustering Adventure.
Mar[22] A writer of skill cannot be defeated because he remains true to his conscience. It is a long serious conflict sometimes, but he must win, if he does not falter. –William Dean Howells, quoted in Crane”s article “Howells Fears Realists Must Wait.”
Mar[23] And from the East came both the sane and the insane with hope, with courage, with hoarded savings, with cold decks, with bibles, with knives in boots, with humility and fear, with bland impudence. Most came with their own money; some came with money gained during a moment of inattention on the part of somebody in the East. –“Moonlight on the Snow”
Mar[24] 1896. March. The PHILISTINE contains Crane”s “A Great Mistake,” another story about the babe “Tommie,” who in MAGGIE dies in infancy” (172).
Mar[25] A baby was wandering in a strange country. He was a tattered child with a frowsled wealth of yellow hair. His dress, of a checked stuff, was soiled and showed the marks of many conflicts like the chain-shirt of a warrior. His sun-tanned knees shone above wrinkled stockings which he pulled up occasionally with an impatient movement when they entangled his feet. From a gaping shoe there appeared an array of tiny toes.–“An Ominous Baby”
Mar[26] 1896. Crane writes to Ripley Hitchcock [of D. Appleton and Company, publishers]: “I have not told you that I am beset–quite–with publishers of various degrees who wish–or seem to wish–to get my books and who make me various offers.”(176)
Mar[27] 1896. Without vanity I may say that I dont [sic] care a snap for money unless I put my hand in my pocket and find none there. Crane, in a letter to Ripley Hitchcock of 26 March 1896. (176)
Mar[28] We are all in it! This poor gambler isn”t even a noun. He is a kind of adverb. Every sin is the result of a collaboration. We, five of us, have collaborated in the murder of this Swede.” –“The Blue Hotel”
Mar[29] 1897. Crane arrives in London. He meets William Heinemann and Sidney Pawling, his partner and editor” (247).
Mar[30] 1896. Late March. Crane submits “An Episode of War” for publication in the YOUTH”S COMPANION” (177).
Mar[31] 1897. Richard Harding Davis, who had contracted to report the Greek-Turkish conflict for the <i>Times</i> (London), gives a formal luncheon for Crane at the Savoy, which is attended by Harold Frederic, Anthony Hope, and Sir James Barrie (247).

Apr
Apr[1] 1896. Crane”s poem “To the maiden” appears in Elbert Hubbard”s THE PHILISTINE (177).
Apr[2] 1896. Crane returns to New York City. He moves back into the studio apartment he shares with Post Wheeler at 165 West 23d Street. . . . He writes to Hitchcock that he is writing a preface to MAGGIE: “The proofs make me ill. Let somebody go over them–if you think best–and watch for bad grammatical form & bad spelling. I am too jaded with Maggie to be able to see it (177).
Apr[3] The wayfarer Perceiving the pathway to truth Was struck with astonishment. It was thickly grown with weeds. “Ha,” he said,”I see that none has passed here “In a long time.” Later he saw that each weed Was a singular knife. “Well,” he mumbled at last, “Doubtless there are other roads.”–WAR IS KIND
Apr[4] 1896. Crane applies for membership in the District of Columbia Sons of the American Revolution. His application is approved on 9 April . . . (178).
Apr[5] It is sometimes taught that men do the furious and desperate thing from an emotion that is as even and placid as the thoughts of a village clergyman on Sunday afternoon. Usually, however, it is to be believed that a panther is at the time born in the heart, and that the subject does not resemble a man picking mulberries. –“A Man and Some Others”
Apr[6] A specter of reproach came to him. There loomed the dogging memory of the tattered soldier–he who, gored by bullets and faint for blood, had fretted concerning an imagined wound in another; he who had loaned his last of strength and intellect for the tall soldier; he who, blind with weariness and pain, had been deserted in the field.– THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, Chapter XXIV
Apr[7] 1897. Crane arrives in Athens to cover the conflict between Greece and Turkey. On 17 April, Turkey declares war on Greece.
Apr[8] 1896. On 7 April, the Lantern Club hosts a dinner for Crane. . . .Crane is introduced by Irving Bacheller, president of the club, and makes a brief address. William Dean Howells is the principal speaker (178).
Apr[9] There was a land where lived no violets. A traveller at once demanded: “Why?”The people told him:”Once the violets of this place spoke thus:”Until some woman freely gives her lover”To another woman”We will fight in bloody scuffle.”Sadly the people added: “There are no violets here.” — WAR IS KIND
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Apr[12] 1896. The NEW YORK PRESS announces that “Stephen Crane has come back to town from hartwood, Sullivan County, and is going to stay here several months, taking things easy, chiefly, and, incidentally, writing a thousand words or so a week on a story that he has on hand. Somebody has wanted to know how in the world this original young man conceived so vivid an idea of battle as is put forth in THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE. He has answered the question for himself in the April BOOKBUYER in this characteristic fashion: “I have never been in a battle, of course, and believe that I got my sense of the rage of conflict on the football field” (179)
Apr[13] Nobody lives here that has money. The average English tradesman with his back-breaking respect for this class, his reflex contempt for that class, his reverence for the tin gods, could here be a commercial lord and bully the people in one or two ways, until they were thrown back upon the defence which is always near them, the ability to cut his skin into strips with a wit that would be a foreign tongue to him. For amid his wrongs and his rights and his failures, his colossal failures, the Irishman retains this delicate blade for his enemies, for his friends, for himself, the ancestral dagger of fast sharp speaking from fast sharp seeing–an inheritance which could move the world. –“Ballydehob”
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Apr[17] 1897. In his “London Letter” to THE CRITIC (17 April), Arthur Waugh comments: “Mr. Stephen Crane has flitted through London this week on his way to the scene of insurrections in Crete, but his visit was of the briefest. Indeed, it was characterized by extreme and refreshing modesty, being conspicuously free of the tendency to self-advertisement which is so often characteristic of the Novelist”s Progress” (247).
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Apr[20] Over the field went the scurrying mass. It was a handful of men splattered into the faces of the enemy. Toward it instantly sprang the yellow tongues. A vast quantity of blue smoke hung before them. A mighty banging made ears valueless. –THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, chapter 19
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Apr[23] 1896. Paul M. Paine”s parody of THE RED BADGE, “The Blue Blotch of Cowardice. An Incident of the Pursuit of the Insurgents, with Profuse Apologies to Mr. Stephen Crane,” appears in LIFE. [ . . . ] It begins: “Above, the sun hung like a custard pie in a burnt blanket. A Spanish cavalier, muttering mild green curses, stood near.” (180)
Apr[24] 1896. Referring to ridicule in the press of THE BLACK RIDERS and the Philistine dinner, Howells writes Hitchcock: “I hope Crane, who has not let praise spoil him, will not let blame. He seems such a good boy, and has lots in him in spite of both” (180)
Apr[25] 1898. “25 or 26 April. Crane arrives in Key West, which . . . is swarming with naval personnel and reporters eagerly waiting for Admiral William T. Sampson”s fleet blockading the coast of Cuba to intercept the Spanish fleet of Admiral Pascual Cevera y Topete, making it safe for the navy to transport troops across the straits of Florida” (298)
Apr[26] 1898. Robert J. collier writes to Reynolds offering to take “The blue Hotel” “shortened to seven thousand five hundred (7,500) or eight thousand (8,000) words for Three Hundred Dollars” (299).
Apr[27]
Apr[28] 1898. Crane”s first Cuban war dispatch is filed from Key West and published in THE NEW YORK WORLD.
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May
May[1] 1898. May. “On the desert,” entitled “Lines,” appears in THE PHILISTINE (300).
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May[18] 1894. Crane visits the Dunmore mines in Pennsylvania, an experience that he writes about in “In the Depths of a Coal Mine,” which appears on July 22, 1894 in newspapers of the McClure syndicate. Crane is irritated by the cuts made in his article.
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May[24] A little ink more or less! It surely can”t matter? Even the sky and the opulent sea, The plains and the hills, aloof, Hear the uproar of all these books. But it is only a little ink more or less. — War is Kind
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Jun
Jun[1] June 1893. Hamlin Garland reviews MAGGIE.
Jun[2] June 1893. Crane begins working on THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE.
Jun[3] 1896. Deposit copy of MAGGIE is made in the Library of Congress (186).
Jun[4] 1898. June. “When a people reach the top of a hill” appears in the PHILISTINE under “Lines.” (307)
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Jun[8] “A man properly lazy does not like new experiences until they become old ones. –‘London Impressions'”
Jun[9] “1897. June. ‘The Open Boat’ receives its only periodical publication in SCRIBNER’S MAGAZINE (262).”
Jun[10] “1898. Six hundred fifty men of the First Marine Batallion land at Guantanamo Bay from the U. S. S. PANTHER. . . . Crane, McCready, and Pain watch the landing from the THREE FRIENDS (309).”
Jun[11] “1898. Resistance to the Marine landing intensifies. . . . That night a large force of Spanish troops and guerillas attacks the camp. Crane later writes vividly of ‘The noise; the impenetrable darkness; the knowledge form the sound of the bullets that the enemy was on three sides of the camp . . .’ (310).”
Jun[12] “1898. At 1:00 a.m. Assistant Surgeon John Blair Gibbs, USN, is shot in front of his tent. Crane reports the casualties in his dispatch, ‘In the First Land Fight Four of Our Men Are Killed’ NEW YORK WORLD, 13 June (310).”
Jun[13] “12 June 1898. From a recollection by E. W. McCready: Crane was sitting on a rock. . . . ‘Come on,’ I said. ‘Let’s hustle like hell down to the boat . . . ‘ He regarded me with visible dislike. ‘Gimme a cigarette!’ he commanded. ‘Do you think, for God’s sake, that I’m going away now on your damned boat, and leave all this?’ –and he waved a hand in a sweeping gesture covering the battle picture. (311)”
Jun[14] “1898. Crane accompanies Captain George F. Elliott, commanding a detachment of 160 Marines from his own Company C and from Captain William F. Spicer’s Company D and 50 Cubans, on a mission to Cuzco, six miles down the coast from Guantanamo Bay, to destroy a guerilla encampment guarding the only well in the area (312).”
Jun[15] “To say the least, a fight at close range is absorbing as a spectacle. No man wants to take his eyes from it until that time comes when he makes up his mind to run away. ‘Marines Signaling under Fire at Guantanamo’ (313).”
Jun[16] “1898. Crane’s dispatch concerning the supposed mutilation of the bodies of two Marines killed in the Guantanamo fighting appears in the BOSTON GLOBE. The WORLD, which headlined a report on 15 June ‘Mutilation of Our Marines Too Horrible for Description,’ Does not print Crane’s piece, ‘Only Mutilated by Bullets,’ which quotes a surgeon who ‘states positively that the wounds were due to bullets only’ (314).”
Jun[17] “1898. Crane, Scovel, and Alexander Kenealy establish WORLD headquarters near Santiago. Scovel undertakes a mission to ascertain the deployment of the Spanish fleet in Santiago Harbor, and Crane accompanies him (314).”
Jun[18] “1898. Before dawn, accompanied by five insurgents, Crane and Scovel ride to another insurgent camp, where their escort is increased to 15 men. The party makes its way through Spanish lines and laboriously ascends a 2000-foot-high mountain, from the summit of which they can view clearly every ship of the Spanish fleet (315).”
Jun[19] “Life and Works of Stephen Crane”
Jun[20] “1898. Crane witnesses the disembarkment of troops at Daiquiri, east of Santiago, an event uneventful except for the overturning of a boat in the surf in which two men and several horses are killed; in addition to ‘Crane Tells the Story of the Disembarkment’ [NEW YORK WORLD, 7 July], Crane writes about this in ‘God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlmen’ (317).”
Jun[21] “Life and Works of Stephen Crane”
Jun[22] Somewhere in him there was a sentimental tenderness, but it was like a light seen afar at night; it came, went, appeared again in a new place, flickered, flared, went out, left you in a void and angry. And if his sentimental tenderness was a light, the darkness in which it puzzled you was his irony of soul. This irony was directed first at himself; then at you; then at the nation and the flag; then at God.–“This Majestic Lie,” one of Crane”s Cuba stories.
Jun[23] 1897. In late June, Crane begins work on THE MONSTER.
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Jun[28] He raised him coolly for his second shot, and almost instantly it was as if some giant had struck him in the chest with a beam. It whirled him in a great spasm back into the saucer. As he put his two hands to his breast, he could hear the guerillas screeching exultantly,every throat vomiting forth all the infamy of a language prolific in the phrasing of infamy. –“The Clan of No Name”
Jun[29] 1887. The ASBURY PARK TRIBUNE reports that “Master Stephen Crane has returned home from Pennington Seminary where he has been studying for the past two years, and will spend his vacation at his mother”s pleasant home on 4th Avenue” (37).
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Jul
Jul[1]
Jul[2] 1898. In the morning Crane sits on San Juan Hill and watches Lawton”s division return from El Caney and move into position on the San Juan Heights, still under fire. Again, he is impressed with the stolid heroism of the regular soldier, “the spectacle of the common man serenely doing his work, his appointed work” (326).
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Jul[5] 1898. Fearful of an American bombardment, most of the civilian population of Santiago evacuates the city and seeks refuge in El Caney, as Crane reports in “Spanish Deserters Among the Refugees at El Caney” (NEW YORK WORLD, 8 July). Frank Norris, also exploring the city itself, reports that “the dead were eeverywhere . . . ” (326).
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Jul[8] 1898. Suffering high fever from malaria, Crane is put aboard the transport CITY OF WASHINGTON at Siboney [Cuba] by George Bronson Rea to return to the United States for medical treatment (327).
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Jul[23] 1898. The SPECTATOR concludes that the title story of THE OPEN BOAT is Crane”s finest work to date and that he is “the most striking and irresistible of all the younger American writers” (331).
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Aug
Aug[1] 1895. Crane”s story “A Mystery of Heroism” appears in various newspapers through the Bacheller syndicate.
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Aug[17] In 1891 on this date, Crane covers Hamlin Garland”s lecture on William Dean Howells.
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Aug[23] There was in the air an endless clatter of dishes, loud and bewilderingly rapid, like the gallop of a thousand horses. –“In a Park Row Restaurant”
Aug[24] There was a crimson clash of war. Lands turned black and bare;Women weptBabes ran, wondering.There came one who understood not these things.He said, “Why is this?”Whereupon a million strove to answer him.There was such intricate clamor of tongues,That still the reason was not. –THE BLACK RIDERS
Aug[25]
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Aug[29] 1899. In a letter to Henry Sanford Bennett, Crane writes, “Tea at [Henry] James”s. My God how does he stand those bores who pester him. Mrs. Humphrey Ward was there. What an old cow! She has no more mind than a president. Nice to us, though.
Aug[30]
Aug[31]

Sep
Sep[1] 1897. In September, Crane writes “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky”; he sends this and THE MONSTER to S. S. McClure in New York.
Sep[2]
Sep[3]
Sep[4]
Sep[5]
Sep[6] 1899. “Henry James inscribes a copy of an unidentified book, probably THE AWKWARD AGE, to Crane” (395).
Sep[7]
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Sep[9]
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Sep[12]
Sep[13]
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Sep[21]
Sep[22] 1896. Hamlin Garland, Stephen Crane, and Abraham Cahan, “three young exponents of so-called realism in fiction,” are guests of honor at the first Lantern Club dinner of the season.
Sep[23]
Sep[24] 1898. Crane and Richard Harding Davis are with the Rough Riders near Guasimas, Cuba, when the Rough Riders are ambushed. Crane”s account of the battle, “Roosevelt”s Rough Riders” Loss Due to a Gallant Blunder” appears in THE NEW YORK WORLD on June 26.
Sep[25]
Sep[26] “I am reminded of the introduction of canned soup into my own town in the West. When the boys found that they could not get full on it they wanted to lynch the proprietor of the supply store for selling an inferior article, but a drummer who happened to be in town explained to them that it was a temperance drink.” –“In a Park Row Restaurant”
Sep[27]
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Nov
Nov[1] Stephen Crane is born at 14 Mulberry Place, Newark, New Jersey on this date in 1871.
Nov[2]
Nov[3]
Nov[4] 1896. Crane”s novel THE THIRD VIOLET begins serial publication in THE NEW YORK WORLD; it will run through November 14.
Nov[5]
Nov[6]
Nov[7]
Nov[8]
Nov[9] 1896. Reviewing THE LITTLE REGIMENT for TOWN TOPICS, George Parsons Lathrop finds “real types and typical realities, and there are well worked up bits of human nature that show appreciative insight and sympathetic intuition” (218).
Nov[10]
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Nov[14] 1896. The PUBLISHERS” CIRCULAR advertises the first Heinemann edition of THE BLACK RIDERS” (219).
Nov[15]
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Nov[21] 1896. Crane applies for a passport and gives his address as the Bacheller syndicate (219).
Nov[22] I walked in a desert. And I cried, “Ah, God, take me from this place!” “A voice said, “It is no desert.” I cried, “Well, but– “The sand, the heat, the vacant horizon.” A voice said, “It is no desert.” –The Black Riders
Nov[23]
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Nov[30]

Dec
Dec[1]
Dec[2]
Dec[3]
Dec[4] 1897. In early December, Crane begins to write “The Blue Hotel.”
Dec[5]
Dec[6]
Dec[7]
Dec[8]
Dec[9]
Dec[10] 1894. Crane writes to Copeland & Day for news about the production of THE BLACK RIDERS. He has apparently misinterpreted their reference to the “severely classic” form in which they intend to bring out the book of poetry to refer to the elaborate black-letter fonts of William Morris. . . (118).
Dec[11] 1897 [Early December]. Crane begins to compose “The Blue Hotel” (282).
Dec[12] 1897 [Mid-December]. Crane reveals the desperation he feels over his declining financial situation [in this cable to his agent Reynolds]: “For heaven”s sake raise me all the money you can and CABLE it, CABLE it sure between Xmas and New Year”s. Sell “The Monster”! Don”t forget that–cable me some money this month”(282).
Dec[13]
Dec[14]
Dec[15]
Dec[16] 1899. THE DIAL considers Active Service an improvement over “that study in chromatic emotion, THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, and of the ineffectual pieces of realism by which it was followed . . . ” (410).
Dec[17] He was like a poverty-stricken and unknown suppliant at a foreign court. even his plea got only ill hearings. He had expected the news of the serious wounding of Tailor to appal the other correspondents, but they took it quite calmly. It was as if their sense of an impending great battle between two large armies had quite got them out of focus for these minor tragedies. Tailor was hurt–yes? They looked at Little Nell, dazed. How curious that Tailor should be almost the first; how very curious; yes. But as far as arousing them to any enthusiasm of active pity, it seemed impossible. He was lying up there in the grass, was he? Too bad, too bad, too bad! –“God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen”
Dec[18]
Dec[19] 1895. Crane attends a dinner held in his honor by the Philistines, a group of artists and writers headed by Elbert Hubbard of East Aurora, New York. Among those sending “regrets” that are published in the souvenir menu are Charles Dudley Warner, Irving Bacheller, Richard Harding Davis, Hamlin Garland, Ambrose Bierce, and W. D. Howells.
Dec[20] 1896. The NEW YORK TRIBUNE considers THE LITTLE REGIMENT a significant advance over Crane”s previous work: “The trouble with THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE was that it took a great deal of mannerism, a great deal of “art,” and spread it thin over too large a surface” . . . (230).
Dec[21]
Dec[22]
Dec[23] 1899. LITERARY DIGEST finds the title story of THE MONSTER AND OTHER STORIES “an interesting study in hysteria and sinister terror. It is thought to be one of his [Crane”s] strongest and most dramatic effects”(411).
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Dec[31]